Mu Yingyang was in a good condition. Although he was much thinner than before, he was at least not as dishevelled and depressed as he was when Xiao Yuan saw him last time.
Xiao Yuan asked, “How is your health?”
Mu Yingyang replied quickly: “I have listened to Shixiong’s words and have been recuperating well. Now I can pick up things with my right hand.”
Mu Yingyang’s tone and expression were those of a child who had done some work for the family without being asked and was waiting for his parents to praise him. Xiao Yuan laughed: “How amazing, I’ll get a doctor to look at it for you later.”
“Okay.” Mu Yingyang looked at Xiao Yuan unblinking. After a brief loss of concentration, he suddenly realized that Xiao Yuan was using his own face and said, “Shixiong is not using Meng Chi’s body. How did you get in?”
“Oh, you mean this?” Xiao Yuan understated, “I am now the Young Lord of Xingtian Sect and I can do whatever I want.”
Mu Yingyang was stunned: “…huh?”
Xiao Yuan didn’t reveal much to Mu Yingyang, only that he was Xiao Du’s younger brother. Xiao Du was recovering from his injuries in retreat, and he was temporarily in charge of Xingtian Sect. Mu Yingyang’s expression changed after hearing this; he was so shocked that he was in a daze. It took a long time before he said, “If Xiao Du doesn’t want his eyes, he can give them to those in need.”
Xiao Yuan glanced at him: “That’s it? Aren’t you cursing him too lightly?”
Mu Yingyang dwelt on it and said, “The fact that Shixiong has become the Young Lord means that Shixiong has recognized him as his elder brother. Can I still curse him?”
“Yes,” Xiao Yuan said, “It’s your mouth, you can curse whoever you want.”
With the approval of his Shixiong, Mu Yingyang wasn’t ceremonious anymore: “Xiao Du’s eyes are covered with lard, right? He recognizes his younger brother and makes a mistake, recognizes again and makes a mistake again. An eighty-year-old woman has better eyes than him. Xingtian Sect will be over sooner or later with him as its lord… Shixiong, why do you want to recognize him? Have you forgotten all the things he did to you? Did you ask the Acacia Gu in your body if it agrees with you recognizing him?”
“I asked, the Acacia Gu said it agreed.”
Mu Yingyang: “…”
Seeing Mu Yingyang’s face livid, Xiao Yuan said, “Xiao Du won’t be out of the retreat for a long time, you can just as well treat him as dead. Will your right hand feel better if you think about him this way?”
Mu Yingyang said in a muffled voice: “It’s not like he’s really dead just because I think he’s dead.”
Xiao Yuan: “Well, that…”
The more Mu Yingyang thought about it, the more depressed he felt. He murmured: “Shixiong recognizes him as his elder brother. As the saying goes, an elder brother is like a father. Won’t I have to ask for his consent when I propose a marriage in the future…” He fantasized about this picture in his mind and his handsome face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
“Propose marriage?” Xiao Yuan thought he had heard wrong, “What marriage are you going to propose?”
Mu Yingyang looked at Xiao Yuan’s profile, his ears feeling slightly hot. He coughed lightly and turned his head, “It’s nothing.”
Xiao Yuan didn’t ask anything else and said, “You go take a bath first and clean yourself up. I ordered someone to lay a table in Chanxin Courtyard, a sort of a banquet to celebrate you getting out of disaster safely.”
After Mu Yingyang took a bath, he changed into a brand new black suit. Only the crimson headband tied to his hair was old. Le’er took him to the door of the main hall where the table was laid, and said, “Master Mu, please come in. The Young Lord is waiting for you inside.”
Xiao Yuan was sitting at the table, reading a secret report from Hongxiu Prefecture. Xingtian Sect’s agents were almost all over the world. There were hundreds of reports like this every day, and all the clues that reached Xiao Yuan’s eyes were quite important. In the report sent from Huaizhou last time, it was said that Gu Hang and an unknown person had a big fight at the Gu clan ancestral hall. The secret agent didn’t see the face of the person who fought with Gu Hang, but in the whole world, there were only a handful of people who would dare to challenge the Master of Yunjian Pavilion. The agent thought the matter was quite suspicious, so he reported it.
And in the letter sent from Hongxiu Prefecture today, it was stated that the Sect Master of Xuanle Sect visited Baihua Palace three days ago and had a long secret conversation with the Master of Baihua Palace all night, as if discussing something important. Xiao Yuan felt that there was some possibility that this major event was related to Shen Fugui. He remembered that Shen Fugui had said that Xuanle Sect intended to form a connection via marriage with Baihua Palace. As for the remaining ninety percent, he was afraid it was related to the battle between Yunjian and Xingtian.
With the war imminent, even if Xuanle Sect and Baihua Palace didn’t want to take a stand, Gu Hang would force them to. If both Baihua Palace and Xuanle Sect became the allies of Yunjian Pavilion, Xingtian Sect’s chances of winning that were not so big to begin with would be halved. Was there any way to make Xuanle Sect and Baihua Palace stand idly by, or even better, fight Yunjian Pavilion……
Xiao Yuan was absorbed in thinking about it when he suddenly heard Mu Yingyang call him: “Shixiong.”
Xiao Yuan raised his eyes and looked up. It was a rare occasion for Mu Yingyang not to wear a sturdy suit and wear a brocade robe. In the past, he had always thought that the sleeves of the brocade robe were too wide and hindered his movement, but occasionally wearing it, unexpectedly it showed some style and elegance, which was slightly surprising to Xiao Yuan.
Feeling Xiao Yuan staring at him, Mu Yingyang didn’t even know where to put his hands. “Do I look weird?”
Xiao Yuan didn’t tell the truth and teased: “Weird and very ugly.”
Mu Yingyang gritted his teeth, “Then I’ll go back and change.”
“No, I don’t mind.” Xiao Yuan raised his chin pointing at the opposite seat, “Sit down.”
Xiao Yuan said that he would be entertaining Mu Yingyang and the table was full of his favorite dishes. He ate with pleasure, while Mu Yingyang had a hard time eating, holding chopsticks with his left hand awkwardly. Xiao Yuan couldn’t watch it anymore, so he picked a fried shrimp cake for him.
Mu Yingyang was taken aback for a moment, “Shixiong…”
Xiao Yuan didn’t even lift his head, “En?”
Mu Yingyang’s eyes felt sour as he looked at the shrimp cake. “Thank you, Shixiong,” he said in a muffled voice.
His Shixiong was not dead, he really was not dead. He was sitting in front of him, and he had just picked food for him.
Mu Yingyang picked up the shrimp cake with his chopsticks and delivered it to his mouth. Accidentally, the shrimp cake fell back into the bowl. He tried a few more times with the same result and said in frustration: “I’m so useless, Shixiong.”
“Oh, maybe you will be even more useless in the future, get used to it.”
Mu Yingyang asked cautiously and expectantly: “Shixiong, will you feed me?”
Xiao Yuan didn’t even think about it and said, “Okay.” With that, he picked up the shrimp cake from Mu Yingyang’s bowl and quickly stuffed it into Mu Yingyang’s mouth.
Mu Yingyang puffed his cheeks with a satisfied expression on his face.
Xiao Yuan sneered and said, “What’s with your expression? I thought you were disabled and had to suffer a lot of grievances all day long. You always talked about revenge, without thinking of eating and drinking, and couldn’t sleep at night. Now that you are eating so well, it seems that I was thinking too much.”
Mu Yingyang swallowed the shrimp cake and said, “It is very painful to have my right hand destroyed, but when Shixiong is here, I don’t feel anything.”
Xiao Yuan was busy pouring some crucian carp soup for himself and said absent-mindedly: “Are you for real?”
Mu Yingyang looked at him for a while, then suddenly said, “Shixiong, are you really alive? Will you disappear again when I wake up?”
“That depends on my mood.” He planned to return to Tong’an County in a few days and stop by at Xuanle Sect to meet Shen Fugui to see if he can find out any news.
Mu Yingyang’s face turned pale, as if he was frightened, “Shixiong, are you leaving? Where are you going, I will go with you!”
Hearing such words was most annoying for Xiao Yuan, especially words like “with you”. He stuffed a piece of shrimp cake into Mu Yingyang’s mouth again, “Eat your meal.”
After Mu Yingyang finished eating, he asked again, “Shixiong, where have you been for the past two years, why didn’t you come to me?”
Xiao Yuan said without thinking: “Because you annoy me.”
Mu Yingyang choked. He remembered what his Shixiong had said to him in Hongxiu when he was still An Mu. His Shixiong didn’t give him a look back before jumping off the cliff, because his Shixiong hated him so much that even before he died he didn’t want to look at him.
Mu Yingyang grabbed Xiao Yuan with his intact hand and said anxiously: “Shixiong clearly knows that what I said to you when I was young is not true.”
Xiao Yuan opened Mu Yingyang’s hand with chopsticks and said with a smile: “Forgive me for my poor eyesight, I couldn’t see that.”
Mu Yingyang clenched his fists and was so frustrated that he couldn’t speak. After a while, he said, “ The things I used to say and do to my Shixiong were terrible, right?”
Xiao Yuan said, “If you really want to know, I can let you feel it.”
“How can I feel it?”
“Why do you talk so much! Hearing your voice affects my appetite, you know, shut your mouth.”
Mu Yingyang: “…”
After the meal, the doctor came to look at Mu Yingyang’s hand.
Meng Chi was not there, so Xiao Yuan found for his Shidi a medical practitioner named Fang Baichu from Xingtian Sect. Fang Baichu’s age was a mystery; he had stayed a charming young man for many years. Although he was not as good as Meng Chi in the use of poisons and Gu, his strength as a medical practitioner was beyond doubt and he was also well-known in the entire Upper Immortal Realm. There were rumors that Yunjian Pavilion invited him to enter the pavilion as a guest cultivator several times, but he politely refused; the reason why he was willing to serve Xingtian Sect was because Xiao Du told him he could either come or die. Fang Baichu was quite afraid of death, so he had packed up and came to Xingtian Sect.
Fang Baichu finished checking Mu Yingyang’s hand, did not shy away and said bluntly: “His Lordship has ruined this hand, and even my ancestor’s reincarnation wouldn’t be able to save it. Master Mu should practice using his left hand as soon as possible.”
Xiao Yuan said, “Can you think of another way?”
Fang Baichu: “I can’t.”
Xiao Yuan threatened: “I will kill you if you can’t.”
Fang Baichu cursed the manners of the two brothers in his heart and said: “I suddenly remembered a few methods. Maybe I can try them, but I can’t guarantee the effect.”
“Try it, at least make him capable of picking up the chopsticks.”
Fang Baichu reluctantly said, “Yes, Young Lord.”
“One more thing.” Xiao Yuan said slowly, “You know how to make the antidote to Acacia Gu, so you can make me a few doses.”
Mu Yingyang woke up instantly: “Shixiong, Shixiong, the 15th is coming soon!”
Xiao Yuan said coolly: “Do you think I need you to remind me?”
Fang Baichu said, “It’s easy to say the antidote needs to be made, but the ruthless hua collected by Xingtian Sect has been used up. I’m afraid the Young Lord will have to go to other places to find a few plants.”
Xiao Yuan suddenly thought of Gu Louyin on the snow-capped mountain outside Luling City. But it was not easy to snatch the ruthless hua from him. Li Yanzhi was not his opponent, and it was difficult to send more than a dozen people. If it weren’t his last resort, he didn’t want to have another conflict with Gu Louyin. And a mere attack of the Acacia Gu was obviously not the last resort.
“I see,” Xiao Yuan said, “you can go.”
After Fang Baichu left, Mu Yingyang started: “Shixiong…”
“What do you want?.”
Mu Yingyang’s cheeks turned red, “If… I mean, if you can’t find a ruthless hua, I can help you with the Gu.”
Xiao Yuan cast a questioning look at Mu Yingyang: “You? Can you? Have you done it before?”
Mu Yingyang’s face turned even redder, “No.”
“Forget it,” Xiao Yuan said, “I’m afraid you have no skills and will hurt me.”